Media Murder for Monday

Here's the latest news wrap-up for crime-related movies, television shows, podcasts, and the theater:

MOVIES

At last week's Hollywood Film Awards, David Fincher's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl took home the top prize. Benedict Cumberbatch snagged the Best Actor honor for his role as WWII codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and his co-star Keira Knightley won Best Supporting Actress.

Two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz has signed on to join Daniel Craig in Sam Mendes’ Bond 24, and speculation is that he will be playing the villain.

Production on the Jake Gyllenhall-starring film The Man Who Made It Snow (based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Max Mermelstein) may be in jeopardy due to a production company lawsuit. The the film tells the story of an American who cracked the inner circle of the Colombian drug cartels in the 1980s and helped build Pablo Escobar's empire.

Sundance Selects picked up North American broadcast rights to three popular Danish "Department Q" thrillers (The Keeper Of Lost Causes, The Absent One, A Conspiracy Of Faith), all adaptations of the bestselling Department Q series of novels written by Jussi Adler-Olsen. The stories focus on chief detective Carl Mørck who’s banished to a basement office to run a cold case division, and star Nikolaj Lie Kaas (A Second Chance) and Fares Fares (Child 44, Zero Dark Thirty).

A trailer was released for the film adaptation of Mordecai, based on the books by Kyril Bonfiglio. The film stars Johnny Depp on a globe-spanning adventure to recover a stolen painting.

TELEVISION

Longmire fans take note: the series based on the stories and characters by author Elmore Leonard is reportedly close to a deal for a new life on Netflix.

Fans of Perception aren't as lucky, however, as TNT announced it was axing the show after three seasons. The show starred Eric McCormack as a neuroscience professor who consults with the FBI on various cases.

CBS has given a production commitment to Sneaky Pete, a drama written and executive-produced Bryan Cranston and David Shore, about a con man in his thirties who assumes the identity of a cellmate to escape his darker past after leaving prison.

ABC put into development Emma Cavendish, a legal procedural written by NCIS co-executive producer Chris Silber about a young attorney who discovers a long-buried secret about her family.

Sundance TV greenlighted the drama series Hap and Leonard, based on the book series by Joe Lansdale. The six-episode series centers on a pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure in a bid to stay on the right side of the law in 1980 East Texas. Production is scheduled to begin in 2015 for a 2016 broadcast.

NBC is looking to add to its recent foray into live productions with a live version of Aaron Sorkin’s famous play A Few Good Men, which was turned into a film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.

The creators of Justified are creating a new series for CBS that's set in a Texas suburb. It centers on a prosecutor named Gaby Ortiz, nicknamed “The Beast,” who's tasked with taking down the rampant crime rate in the area, following the disturbing death of the district attorney.

Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds) will costar in TNT’s untitled Miami-set project from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay about the wild and unpredictable world of the Florida drug trade in the 1970s.

Lolita Davidovich and Intruders star James Frain have been added to the cast for the second season of HBO’s True Detective.

Jessy Schram (Veronica Mars) and Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) have joined the cast of Lifetime’s six-episode limited series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, based on the life of the notorious murderess.

Girl Meets World actor Ben Savage is set to guest star in an episode of Criminal Minds on CBS, playing a young version of Mandy Patinkin's character.

Ron Perlman has signed on to play The Blacklist's next mega criminal when the show returns on February 1st behind the Super Bowl. He'll play a meticulous thief who plans his international heists over the course of several months or years, creating diversions and chaos to get what he wants — until he faces off with Red Reddington (James Spader).

BBC Two has ordered a third series of the Steven Knight-created period crime saga Peaky Blinders, with Netflix set to air Season 3 in the U.S. after BBC Two airs the series first.

NBC, Nat Geo and Discovery are teaming up to launch The Justice Network, dedicated to solving crime and “make a difference.” Programming will feature stories of true crime and aim to make communities safer by empowering viewers to take action.

Showtime renewed Homeland, starring Clare Danes, for a fifth season.

USA renewed its law-enforcement drama Graceland, starring Aaron Tveit and Daniel Sunjata, for a t
hird season. The series centers on a group of diverse law-enforcement agents from the DEA, FBI and Customs forced to live together in an undercover beach house in Southern California.

TNT announced it's pulling the plug on the legal dramedy Franklin & Bash, which just wrapped up its fourth season on the network.

Amazon released a trailer for its upcoming new TV series Bosch, based on the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO

What's the state of the art in forensic science? Find out on the latest Crime & Science Radio: Improving Forensic Science with Kevin Lothridge Of The NFSTC.

THEATER

Garrison Keillor's Midwestern private eye Guy Noir from Prairie Home Companion was the inspiration for a ballet by James Sewell Ballet in the Twin Cities. Although it's too late to catch the show, here's hoping it might spur other companies to take on this new production. (Hat tip to Elizabeth Foxwell.)